The true base of the Democratic Party.

[Union Yes]

The Middle Class

The Poor.

The working person.

[the other one]

1. And people who care enough to register Democratic

Let's not forget the registered Democrats

[WT Fuheck]

2. Groups who either don't vote, or who have established track records of voting against

their own best interests.

Hmmm.

[Frosty1]

5. Do you mean

like so many of the repubs do?

[WT Fuheck]

13. who do you think the reagan democrats were/are?

Republicans get votes from the middle class and the working class. These groups have given us and themselves 29 uninterrupted years of neocon rule, which has worked relentlessly against them. (Or they did until 2006.) If the next three years go like Obama's first, they'll either not vote or vote Republican in large numbers again in 2012.

[JVS]

18. A myth that the republicans created to promote themselves.

The Reagan Democrats were white collar workers. They saw tax cuts and got all moist for them. The blue collar workers were anything but happy with the deindustrialization of the mid 1980's

[WT Fuheck]

19. Not the nearly entire generation of blue-collar workers in my family,

or my ex-wife's family, or my best friend's family, or my girlfriend's family, all of whom went republican beginning in the 80's, a few of whom voted for Obama, but who seemed pretty damned unanimous over the holidays about going back to republican ranks in 2010.

[Fumesucker]

20. It's been hard to find a blue collar Democrat for a while..

Since Reagan basically, plenty of union members voted R too.

I recall getting in arguments about Reagan with coworkers back then, they fell for Reagan's bullshit hook, line, sinker, pole, arm and dock.

[JVS]

17. What the fuck are you talking about? Without the poor, we'd lose every time.

[kctim]

3. The true base of any party

are the ones who ALWAYS vote for it out of FEAR of the "other side."

The middle class, the poor and the working person usually vote based on what they think will be taken from or given to them.

[kentuck]

4. And the poor are growing exponentially as the middle class shrinks...

The Democratic Party should be stronger than ever.

[old mark]

6. Should be....we must get as many motivated voters as possible

to increase the Dems in congress, and in all other elected office.

The GOP is making it plain every day that they have NOTHING to offer anyone.


mark

[RC]

10. Not when the Democratic Party is at best the old Republican middle.

The real political center is just over the horizon to the Left. We are with in a stones toss of the Right edge drop off now.

[OHdem10]

7. Too bad our elected Democrats do not know this.

[Danascot]

8. The problem is that since campaigns are so expensive

congress critters have to take money from special interests whose interests are often at odds with the interests of their constituents. Health care reform has been a textbook example of this.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

9. They THINK they have to run expensive campaigns

but what they really need is VOTES.

If they can get the votes by methods other than buying TV time, they can free themselves from the Big Boys.

For example, I don't know whether Oregon's Peter DeFazio accepts corporate money or not, but one thing that endears him to left-leaning Oregonians is that he holds $30 pizza and beer fundraisers. I attended a few, even though I never lived in his district, and they were always PACKED, yet it was not hard to get to talk to DeFazio.

To win the votes of the very poor, what about $5 coffee and cookie fundraisers with a chance to share your concerns with the candidate? If the candidate can get people to pay any amount of money at all to meet him/her, s/he is almost assured of their vote.

Of course, this works better for smaller elections, but the principle is important: In the end, money is just a means of gaining votes, and it is possible to gain votes by other means, such as developing a reputation for being accessible and available.

[timeforpeace]

11. The poor have been our base for a long time, haven't they?

[Phoebe Loosinhouse]

12. Both parties are doing a swell job of proving that the only ones they represent are THEMSELVES

and the monied interests that buy their votes on any given day on any given issue.

There is a Great Awakening going on.

[saltpoint]

14. I don't see Grover Norquist on your list.

I'm from a big union family. Unions matter in our family tree in a real big way. One of my grandmothers was a LaFollette socialist. She wouldn't have cared much for somebody like Evan Bayh, although she would have likely preferred Bayh to the far-Right kooks the Republicans tend to run for Senate in states like Indiana.

She lived long enough to love Robert F. Kennedy.

[TheKentuckian]

15. It sure as hell ain't Conrad, Lieberman, Bayh, Nelson, and those whose

beliefs they supposedly represent.

You think somebody that thinks like Ben Nelson is a dependable Democrat? The left, the crazy liberals, the ideological pure are the problem they say but they sure as shooting ain't no Reagan Democrats and they didn't become Reagan Democrats because of liberal policy but rather because they tend to be responsive to authoritarian rhetoric or easy marks to sell a bill of goods to.

Of course now we have the issue that the Republicans have gone off the deep end and kept right on going has lead some Republicans that are pretty fucking Republican but still plausibly described as sane and lucid to come on into the big tent. That could be worked with in one party or a parliamentary system but not in a two party system with a bunch of loons and idiots working lockstep in a very substantial minority to act like a gravity well that gives incredible weight to those saner cousins that have a (D) next to their name.

Who gives a shit who the base is? Stop worrying with those obviously not in the base and everyone else will feel a thousand times more respected and seated properly at the table.

THE RIGHT IS THE PROBLEM. THE RIGHT IS ALWAYS THE PROBLEM.

The difference between Conrad and Grassley is more reason and sanity than philosophy.

[Dinger]

16. Kick & Rec #22

:)